Rock painting

I am the first to admit that painting on rocks is not a revolutionary art style. Although I freely concede that it is the most traditional art form of them all; since I never had a caveman to pull me aside and show me how to paint on rock, I never learnt the culture of how it should be done. Needing to teach myself, I worked out my own techniques and developed a style that is as different from ancient rock painting as a Picasso painting is different from a da Vinci.

For me, creating a refined rock painting is not unlike playing a musical instrument. It requires an understanding of the various notes that various rocks contain and then selectively compiling them into a melody. Some notes are to be found in the geographic origin of the rock, some are to be found in the expressive lines and colours of the rock, still more notes are to be found in the manner of assemblage and still more notes are found in the cultural associations that have formed over the tens of millennia that we have painted on the rock or looked to the rock to find the answers to how we came into being. The image that is ultimately selected for the rock should be that beautiful melody that selectively brings the various notes together.

1) Learning about the expressive qualities of the rock

Rape of the Sabine Women (2009)

The Rape of the Sabine Women was one of my earliest rock paintings. The painting was derived from a drawing in an art book, which was derived from a Rubens painting of an ancient Roman myth. According to myth, the first generation of Roman men acquired their wives by abducting them from neighbouring Sabine families.

When I started the painting, I had no intellectual engagement with the Rubens painting nor interest in the myths of ancient Rome. I was solely interested in seeing how Chinese ink went on rock. I chose a complex image that could allow me to test what could be done with rock and ink.

In this painting, I used undiluted ink for the black outlines of the figures, then the diluted ink that appears grey as a second line on the inside. From looking at Chinese ink wash paintings, I found that the combination of black and grey has a way of directing eye focus. Generally, Chinese use black in the foreground and grey to signal depth. I found that when I used a grey line on the interior of a black line, my eye was pulled inwards, which gave a sense of depth to the body.

Once finished, I looked at the painting and found it very interesting. The rock itself seemed to be the star that gave the painting its emotional feeling and intellectual stimulation. In my mind, the colours of the rock seemed almost like a sunset of the gods immortalised in the rock of western civilisation.

As I said, I had no intention to express anything about ancient Rome. By pure coincidence, my attempt at understanding ink and rock had produced a painting that I found intellectually stimulating.

To be Reconciled (2012)

Cultivation (2012)

2) Enhancing the colours of the rock

Study of Serpent DNA (2010)

The threaded snake is a motif that has repeatedly appeared in my art since I first started painting. I think it is some kind of motif that has formed in response to stories of the rainbow serpent in Aboriginal myths, the concept of the trinity and scientific ramifications about all animals sharing much of their DNA.

When I first painted Study of Serpent DNA, I used black outlines and grey interior lines as I did for the Rape of the Sabines. I then discovered that after spraying it with a sealant, I could brush on colour from pastels as if applying makeup. If I gave it another spray, I could add even more colour and form. With time, I really came to love the subtlety of colour application could compliment the inherent colours of the rock being painted upon.

In the Conception of Genesis, I dusted pastel to enhance the background colour. For examples, areas of grey were dusted blue so tha they could enhance the natural reds.

Conception of Genesis (2010)

3) Land, belonging and identity

Becoming Australian (2010)

As I continued copying images onto rock, I learnt that rock allows for gradients in ways that are difficult to achieve when using ink on paper. I then looked at the various small rock paintings that I had created and I realised that taken all together, they made in an interesting mosaic about Australia that gave me some ideas about the relationship between land and identity. With this idea in mind, I made a few more paintings then set about working on methods to fix them to a board that would allow them to be displayed together. I went off to a hardware store, found some tiling cement and fixed them down. I then used some red grout to conceal the greyness of the cement.

4) Mosaics, expression with rocks, painting on mosaics

Chad Looking Back on Chad (2011)

As I increased my appreciation for the natural colours, textures and shapes of the rock, I wondered if I could actually create a kind of abstract expressionist painting using rock. To experinment, I used cement to fix pieces of rock to the board.

For reasons I can't remember, or perhaps were never conscious in my mind, I developed a desire to paint myself on them.

I remember that I faced numerous challenges in trying to do a lifelike self-portrait on a surface that was not even in colour and which was had different rock densities affecting the acceptance of ink. These challenges appealed to me in some way, but I can't remember why. The final painting I found to be very spiritually satisfying, but I am not really sure why.

5) Art in the assembling

Black Swan (2011)

Sometimes when I split rock, interesting patterns were formed when the pieces fell to the ground. In the Black Swan, I found the combination of the three pieces, as well as the colours of the rocks themselves, to be interesting. For some reason that I am not really sure of, looking at them made me think of a black swan and my next challenge was to find a display method that would allow this feeling to be enhanced. I decided black volcanic sand would be great. Unfortunately, black volcanic sand is hard to come by, but I worked out I could create artificial black sand if I mixed black powder paint with normal sand. I then fixed the same to a board using a tiling cement.

Study of a Christian Fish (2012)

It has been said that there are no straight lines in nature. Although the saying is false, the fact that it was created reveals something about the psychological impact of straight lines. Those straight lines can be found in rocks, and they can be used in ways that have an impact.

6) Bold use of ink

Enlarging the Square and Dissecting Pi (2011)

When I first started painting on rock, I had been reluctant to use much ink because I was fearful of dominating the natural colours and shapes of the rock. Generally, I wanted to keep large blocks of empty space that would allow the rock to be coming through any image imposed on it.

 My thinking changed when creating Dissecting Pi. I found that even solid blocks of thick black had value. The key was to have some parts having strong use of ink and other parts remaining as outlines.

Study of crab DNA (2012)

When painting on rock, I've always found a need to balance the need of the object to find expression with the expressive characters of the rock itself. The black outline format of Rape of the Sabines gave maximum expression to the rock while the coloured in outlines of Dissecting Pi gave more strength to the object. With the Study of Crab DNA, I found a balance between the two that suited the character of the image I was creating and my desire to make it work with the all governing snake DNA motif. Rather than thin lines, the crab is given form with solid threads of black. This allows the crab to take up large area of the rock, and be bold in the rock, yet still allow the character of the rock to come through it.

7) Harnessing nature’s painting

Study of the Birth of a Crab (2012)

Buried deep in the ground, rock sometimes splits allowing mud and roots to penetrate the space. The crack may then close, and pressure hardens the mud and root to make it part of the rock. This proces creates some very beautiful patterns, which can add expressive qualities to whatever image is added to the rock.

8) Escaping culture

Christians Schooling Around a Dead Fish (2012)

Rock allows for an escape from the cultural associations of alternative mediums. Specifically, mediums such as oil, tempura, ink on paper, and acrylic are all bound to certain places and when created, they communicate an age. If painted normally, they look new. Techniques can be used to make them look old, but that can be restricting as well because it anchors the image in a time. Rock paintings don't evoke the same associations with a specific time or culture because they age very slowly and are common to all humanity. Admittedly, some rock can be tied to a place, such as the rock I get from Black Mountain, but other rock, particularly that from the sea, is more generic.

9) Referencing culture

Although it is possible to escape a cultural association, it is not possible to all cultural associations. To put it another way, while it is possible to leave a country, as soon as that country is left, another country is occupied (well, not if you go to space, international waters or Antarctica, but you get the point.) Rock has cultural associations because of the role it has placed in the development of human culture and also its ability to record past life as fossils. That association can’t be escaped and if anything, offers another note for the artist to use when compiling a melody.

Left Hand (2012)

Right Hand (2012)

Chad Swanson email: chad@lonelycolours.com